As described in DE 10 2004 011 358, a jack for telecommunication and/or data transmission systems has a metallic housing, a first printed circuit board fixed therein with connectors accessible from a lower face of the housing for electrical conductors, a plug seat for a plug communicating with the jack, a flexible, second printed circuit board having mutually insulated contact strips that forms jack contacts for contacts of the plug and that is fixed to the first printed is circuit board to form contact traces thereof, the contact strips being biased by a spring support in the housing so that the flexible second printed circuit board engages the first printed circuit board with a first end and forms the conductive traces thereof.
In the known jack, a flexible printed circuit board is combined with a rigid printed circuit board. The flexible printed circuit board has two ends that are fixed on one side to the printed circuit board and on the other side to the jack. Between these ends, a central region is designed as a contact area forming a group of exposed contact strips that are spaced laterally apart. These form the mechanical connection between the two end portions and create the jack contacts for engagement with the contacts of a plug inserted into the jack.
In the jack, the area with insulated contact strips is for contacting the plug contacts inserted in the jack by disk-shaped guiding and positioning elements, on each of which is supported a corresponding conducting path section from the group of contact strips. The contact strips are also separated from one another by these elements. The guide elements are fastened by a flexible support arm on the cover of the jack, and a leaf spring is also provided as a supporting and springing element.
In this configuration, the contact points of the insulated contact strips with the corresponding plug contacts are separated relatively widely from the corresponding printed circuit board, which leads to poor transfer characteristics with regard to control signals and the like delivered via the plug contacts. In addition, relative movement between the piece is supporting and separating the insulated contact strips and the contact strips thereof occurs. This can lead to undesired wear in the region of the insulated contact strips, and thus to reduced transmission quality.
As is well known from the prior art, the individual contact strips can be one-sided, that is covered on the underside or the upper side by copper metal, which merges with the material layer of the end portion. The conductive traces and the contact strips may also be metal, in particular copper. In the uninsulated regions, which serve for making contact, the contact strips are coated with a well electrically conductive, corrosion-resistant material, for example gold.